Don’t
Stop at the Cross.
How
we love the Cross - for through the love of God that took Jesus to the Cross we
can receive salvation and the gift of eternal life. As we spend time in this precious place we are
assured of forgiveness of all sins.
We look at Jesus’ suffering and dying in our place and the pain brings
us to know His love and His mercy.
We are reassured and should be ready to start again but too often we
linger in this place and allow it to become a comfort
zone!
How
many Christians keep Jesus on the cross?
On Good Friday it is right to dwell on that image, but in three days
Christ was no longer there for He had risen.
If, as Protestants since the time of the Reformation, we look at an empty
cross we see an image of both the Resurrection and of a Way forward.
This Way of the Cross is
walking the way of Jesus but we do not walk alone for we are now “in
Christ”.
So
my friends as we prepare for this year’s Flammau Tân / Flames of Fire Conference,
I believe that the Lord is calling us to take note
of a number of related images.
These themes have been
picked up in this year’s conference banners and I hope that they will inspire
you as you “Prepare the Way of the Lord”.
There
are three passages from Isaiah through which a thread of God’s love and
holiness take us to the cross and beyond into His very presence.
He
calls us to come up onto the “Holy Highway”
where only the redeemed of the Lord can walk, we are assured of absolute
safety for nothing unclean is found there.
(Isaiah 35: 8-10) But
from here we can enter Zion singing, this
is the Lord’s way and we need to be open to hearing how we should journey on
it.
Isaiah 40 is that great chapter of God comforting His people, but it is here in verse 3 that we hear, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way of the LORD make straight in the wilderness a highway for our GOD.............'
There
is assurance that the way can be made smooth but there is a message to proclaim,
“say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’ ”
So
can we, like John the Baptist, cry out to the world, calling for repentance and
showing the way? Our actions
are as important today as they have ever been, not only through the proclaimed
message, but by the way we live, showing the world the way of the Lord.
But it is from Isaiah 61 that I draw the image of how we are to live.
Jesus himself quoted from it when he spoke in the synagogue (Luke
4:18-19). He said that he had come
for this purpose; now it is the work of the Church to complete it.
Jesus
came “to
proclaim the year of the LORD’S favour”,
that
was the Good News, but Isaiah added that another day must be proclaimed “the
day of vengeance of our God”
Is this the message for today?
Are we ready for Christ’s return?
Are we willing to become “Oaks of Righteousness”?
Yes,
this Holy Highway goes right through the Cross, God wants a Holy people and He
will make a Holy people of all who are willing.
I know that He is telling us not to be afraid and that he has to come
first in absolutely everything.
This is the point at which many Christians get scared, they can’t yet
trust Him with all of their lives. I
pray for this final surrender of the Church, and join the cry of “Lord have
mercy on us.” We want
Revival but it can only start in us.
This
issue brings two views of Revival, one even calls for our leaders to show us the
way! Brian Favell’s
articles now reach the ministry of teaching and that causes me to cry out,
questioning the Church. “So
where are the teachers? Why
don’t Christians really know what it means to be ‘A Normal Christian’?
(Watchman Nee’s words). Why
does the Church try to manage without the Holy Spirit as the Teacher and
Guide?” Often I feel that I
am hard on the clergy as I expect too much of them, but I do expect them
to teach the churchgoers what it is all about.
One failing is that we in the Anglican Church, at least, expect the
clergy to do everything and to exhibit all the “gifts of ministry”.
But I also ask, “Who is ready to teach?
Who is really prepared?”
"Unless the Lord builds the house. its builders labour in vain " (Ps.127:1)
It is so easy
to forget that we will learn nothing unless the Holy Spirit takes charge, when
will all those who long for Revival start letting it happen?
I
have known a lot of teachers in the secular world, in fact I taught maths and
computing for some years. Two
things are important, (1) a
knowledge of your subject and suitable preparation, and (2) a real care for your
students. Without these factors you will fail. We have to want to learn and need to cooperate with our
teachers so consider how this can best be done in the Church, remembering that
sermons, like lectures, are very poor teaching methods……BUT meanwhile te
Church needs teaching and that means all members, clergy as well as laity.
So
I return to walking the Way of the Lord, will the Church be ready when He comes.
I can only point to the way to prayer, for I see prayer as our
communication with God throughout our spiritual journey on earth.
It is also a road reaching from man to God, starting when we first begin
to pray simple prayers perhaps as a child.
There is for each of us the way of ordinary prayer, being vocal or silent
but involving words. To many
this way of praying fills a lifetime, and wonderful prayers are spoken or read.
Some are led to forms of silent prayer, meditation or simply a resting in
the Lord. Such prayer has
many names, the prayer of love, of
surrender, quietude or the prayer of the heart to name but a few.
We can all pray in this way if we are willing, and here we get the first
inkling that God calls us deeper and longs for us to let Him take charge of our
prayer. From this point He
can take us into contemplative prayer and a step closer to Union with
God……………….May His will be done and His Name glorified.
Mary Newsom